Apple posts record iPhone 6 and 6 Plus pre-orders

When Apple opened pre-orders for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus bright and early last Friday, many potential purchasers complained of issues with both the Apple Store and various carriers. But that doesn’t seem to have stopped anyone from actually placing an order, based on the numbers.

Apple says that more than four million iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus handsets were pre-ordered during the first 24 hours or availability, though it remains to be seen what the total actual first weekend sales tally will be once next Monday rolls around. Some nine million iPhone 5s and 5c handsets were sold in the first weekend of availability last year.

First Windows phone without “Windows Phone” spotted

Late last week, multiple reports claimed that Microsoft will stop using the Windows Phone moniker for its smartphones and instead brand them with the basic Windows logo and name (effectively making them “Windows phones” instead - a subtle distinction). Now we have a glance at how that’s going to unfold.

A non-public page found on carrier My Go’s website reveals the Windows GoFone GFW47 handset, with an image of the backing showing only the plain Windows logo on the bottom. The page also consistently refers to it as a Windows device, yet still calls the OS “Windows Phone 8.1,” suggesting that the software will keep the old naming, but the devices themselves likely will not.

Official tool to remove free U2 album from iTunes

Not every iTunes user was pleased to receive U2’s free new album, Songs of Innocence, and we dug around and shared a multi-step process for hiding it from your library last week. But in the wake of consistent complaints, Apple has made it so easy that you can now click a button and truly remove it from your library forever.

Yes, forever. So if you change your mind after 13 October when the free download promotion ends, you’ll have to pay real money to purchase the album from iTunes. But you’re probably not ever going to do that, right?